Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: “Trust Me”Review

Traveling to Wonderland has become the most enchanting part of my week. It's one of those shows that sucks you in and makes you forget the real world, and those are few and far between. Watching it is like going down a rabbit hole, literally (well, for the characters) and figuratively.

Especially impressive about this show so far is the chemistry between each of the actors in the ensemble. In this kind of group, there's usually there's one person who just doesn't jibe - it's just a numbers game. But here all the actors and their characters work well together. I find myself looking forward to all the scenes equally whether it's Alice and the Knave or the White Rabbit and the Red Queen. It's all the more impressive given that one of their number, John Lithgow's White Rabbit, isn't even really there for the actors to play against. Granted, the cast isn't gigantic but it's still worth highlighting that they've got such a good bench to work with.

Sophie Lowe continues to rock as Alice. So far she's a well rounded character and the fact that such a person is the lead of the series is brilliant. She's far from the “insert kick-butt adventurous female character here” problem so many shows grapple with. She's not a stock character. We've seen several sides of Alice's personality already, and tonight she revealed that she's exceedingly clever. Given that we're only two episodes into the series, that's a very good sign. (Unlike ones that say DRINK ME. I hear those are nothing but trouble.)

Michael Socha's performance as the Knave is also immensely enjoyable. Socha nails the charm and rogue, and despite knowing he's not to be trusted, you can't help but like him. He's a nice counterpoint to Peter Gadiot's Cyrus, who is nothing but sweet and kind. It only took a minute of flashbacks to see why he and Alice fell in love, and it's important that the writers worked their origin into the story early. Since we've seen more of Alice and Cyrus' history and know they're right for each other, we're more likely to root for them. However, they could have skipped Cyrus' whole “what if you change your mind?” baloney. That speech is boring and overdone.

They're doing a wonderful job showing us what a fantastical place Wonderland is; the most bizarre sounding things are commonplace there. You can see it in the landscape, set designs, characters like the fairy ferry, and in the way Alice casually mentions getting her new outfit from the passing Clothes Horse. Because all of it takes place in the fairy tale realm, it can commit to the whimsical instead of making the jarring jump into our world. The abandon with which they can approach world building makes the story much richer and a heck of a lot more fun.

Unfortunately, the digital backgrounds are at their usual Once Upon a Time level of not great, but at least in Wonderland it's not as obvious. They come off as surreal, rather than hyper real, and the show makes it work.

I appreciate how they're answering the obvious questions. If Cyrus wouldn't have answered Alice's question about whether she could wish for his freedom, we'd just be wondering why she hasn't done so the entire time. That change also shakes you out of any expectations you may be holding from Disney's Aladdin movie. The rules aren't the same here, and it's a sound decision to give a familiar fairy tale the potential to be unpredictable.

Though the scenes between the Red Queen and the Jafar are a blast to watch and the evil to evil flirting is delightful, they feel a touch forced. Jafar is apparently a micro-manager because he checks in way too much. I think they'd be more effective if they had more separate scenes – we've had a taste of those – and hopefully those will come as the season progresses. From his time on Lost, we know Naveen Andrews has serious skills, he just needs the right scenes to highlight them.

It's just the beginning of the series, but the chess board is set and we're in for an exciting game. Every character has spirit and is moving toward a defined purpose. The evil characters don't seem like they're going to change sides every five minutes, and that's such a relief. Unlike other shows. You know what I'm talking about here. Cough cough, Evil Queen.

I'm not going to say that Wonderland is the most original show. We've seen a lot of this before. But it's telling the story in an interesting way that sucks you in, and it has its own voice. For a show that's a spinoff, that's quite the accomplishment.